The present invention relates to apparatus particularly for use in plotter and printer apparatus for cutting sheet media.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,452,312 (McMurray), 3,260,147 (Farabee), 3,589,222 (Sederberg), 3,735,660 (Pearl), 4,545,275 (Pearl) and 4,841,822 (Gerber) all disclose sheet material cutting apparatus which include a movable cutting member reciprocated by an electric motor and structure coupling the cutting member to the motor. In the cutting apparatus disclosed in those patents, the movable cutting member is displaced, i.e., reciprocated, in a straight line relative to the media and/or a stationary cutting member. Such cutting apparatus utilize a mechanism or linkage to convert the motor rotary motion to straight-line motion to reciprocate the movable cutting member, and/or a guide structure for guiding the movable cutting member in a straight line. The cutters of the Sederberg '222, the Pearl '660, the Pearl '275 and the Gerber '822 patents are mounted on a carriage movable in the Y-direction, and either that carriage is mounted on a carriage simultaneously movable in the X-direction or the material to be cut is simultaneously movable in the X direction, so that cuts may be made along lines in any desired direction. Circular- or disc-type sheet cutting apparatus are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,400,527 (Aycock), 3,772,949 (Pavone et al.), 4,355,794 (Costigan), 4,401,001 (Gerber et al.), 4,643,061 (Gerber), 4,685,363 (Gerber), 4,691,605 (Vanetik et al.) and 4,907,014 (Tzeng et al.). Such circular cutting apparatus may be mounted to cut sheet media parallel to the X-axis, parallel to the Y-axis or along any desired line. U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,582 (Liu) discloses slitting paper in a plotter, i.e., cutting the paper parallel to the X-axis.